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Bailiwick of Conti
Situated on the eponymous island (49.179°N 2.107°W), Conti is a merchant city-state home to a community of industrious seafarers devoted to the advancement of commerce and the preservation of True Freedom. |connectedresources = |bonusresources = }} Instrument of Government The Great Council is the unicameral legislature of the bailiwick. It consists of 100 members, referred to as Councillors, elected for a single five-year term. The Council of Ten is the executive governing body and collective Head of State of the bailiwick. Its members, elected from among the Great Council, are: *The Chancellor of Justice, Keeper of the Seals *The Controller-General of Finances *The Paymaster General *The Councillor of State for Commerce *The Councillor of State for War *The Councillor of State for Educational Affairs *The Councillor of State for Research and Technology *The Councillor of State for Health *The Councillor of State for the Environment *The Councillor of State for Public Works The Bailiff assumes representative functions and is elected from among the Council of Ten, in rotation and for a one-year term. The States-General is a temporary legislative assembly, consisting of 300 elected deputies, vested with the exclusive authority to review the Instrument of Government. The power to convoke the States-General is the sole prerogative of the Great Council. The Admiralty of Conti and the office of Captain-General of the Sea were established by the Admiralty Act on 8 October 2009. The Captain-General of the Sea, appointed for a two-and-half-year term by the Great Council, is responsible for overseeing the administration of the navy in conjunction with the Councillor of State for War. Conti’s legislation on citizenship is governed by the jus sanguinis principle. Citizenship is acquired at birth if either of the parents is a citizen of Conti. In effect, political participation and the exercise of citizenship rights in Conti’s overseas dominions are restricted to residents of Conti descent. Naturalisation can only be granted by a private act of the Great Council. Although Conti's institutional arrangement and form of government is representative in nature, the Instrument of Government makes provisions for the promotion of direct democracy. Citizens can challenge or propose legislation via referendum if a public petition is signed by a fifth of all registered voters. Universal suffrage is guaranteed for all citizens age 20 or over. The Guildhall is the seat of government. Chartered Companies The East India Company (EIC) and the West India Company (WIC) are mercantile companies established by an act of the Great Council on 5 June 2009 to further Conti's overseas commercial expansion. Both corporations possess a Charter of Privileges issued by the Great Council guaranteeing special trading rights with territories lying respectively east and west of the Prime Meridian. Conferred privileges include fiscal exemptions aimed at stimulating the growth of trade in raw commodities and securing continuing access to energy supplies, the right to maintain armies, wage war, mint money and sign treaties. All military, naval and diplomatic undertakings by the EIC and the WIC in the Indies are carried out in the name of the Great Council and the relevant company (EIC and WIC commanders swear a double oath of allegiance to the company and the Great Council). Ships operated or owned by the EIC have the privilege to sail under their company’s house flag in lieu of Conti's merchant ensign. On 27 August 2011, The East India Company obtained patents from the Council of Ten to undertake the colonisation of territories. The EIC is the only and supreme authority in its subject territories under the sovereign supervision of the Great Council. The West India Company secured similar arrangements on 20 September 2011. Piracy originating from the island of Bali (8.20°S 115.00°E) reached alarming levels by the second half of 2011, dangerously disrupting the company’s trade with the Indies and driving marine insurance rates to unsustainable highs. The EIC’s board of directors, having recently secured advantageous patents from the Council of Ten, seized on the opportunity to advance the company's interests decisively. The company dispatched a flotilla of four warships to the region in December 2011 (EICS Nemesis, EICS Paulus, EICS Tethis and EICS Sirius) to patrol Indonesian waters and protect company shipping with the Indies. The EIC’s expeditionary force swiftly gained control of north Bali’s main port, Buleleng, in the early days of 2012. A systematic campaign of land conquest ensued culminating in the removal of local potentates and the subjugation of the island to company rule. The sister-islands of Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Penida and Nusa Ceningan fell in quick succession. For the first time in its history the EIC now controls a permanent base for its long distance colonial commerce in South-East Asia. The EIC secured the cession of Singapore (1.30°N 103.80°E) and its adjacent island group from the Sultan of Johor on 27 November 2012 after another successful display of gunboat diplomacy. Duchy of Brittany and the Free City of Saint-Malo The Brittany Company (BC) is a state-chartered, joint-stock monopoly organisation formed by an act of the Great Council on 14 June 2009 following the purchase of the dukedom of Brittany. The company's Charter of Privileges reflects the bailiwick’s reluctance to allocate excessive fiscal resources to support its dependencies by effectively privatizing the administration of the duchy. The act facilitates the transfer of government functions to the Brittany Company for the duration of its charter with an explicit mandate to enact legislation, exercise police powers and levy taxes (the BC administers its own tax system within guidelines laid down by the Council of Ten), thus conferring upon the company quasi-regal powers nominally attributed to the Great Council. The BC's charter is subject to review and renewal after 12 years. The States of Brittany are the highest judicial body in the ducal lands. It associates deputies from the merchant patriciate of the six Breton town government (Rennes, Brest, Quimper, Vannes, St Brieuc, Redon) and hereditary members of the Breton nobility. Having been deprived of their customary rights of consultation and deliberation with the advent of company rule, the States' powers are confined to the exercise of their judicial prerogatives. The States only retain limited oversight of taxation in time of war. Situated at the mouth of the Rance Estuary on the northern coast of Brittany, the Free City of Saint-Malo (48.648°N 2.007°W) is Conti's major commercial gateway to its mainland dominions administered by the Brittany Company. Owing to St Malo's prominence as the bailiwick's chief emporium on the continent, the Great Council declared the city a corpus separatum under the provisions of the Charter of Liberties of the Free City of Saint-Malo conceded on 26 July 2009. The charter institutes a council of 12 elected members, collectively known as the Corporation of Saint-Malo, entrusted with the government of the city under the leadership of the Provost of the Merchants. The document confers upon the city all powers of self-governance and privileges associated to free city status and confines Conti’s involvement in municipal government to prerogatives pertaining to defence and foreign affairs. New Model Army The New Model Army Act adopted by the Great Council on 9 June 2010 created the nucleus of Conti’s first standing army, composed of professional soldiers organised into permanent regiments. The act put an end to the bailiwick’s overreliance on civic militia and mercenary companies for its defence and reformed the long-standing practice of raising temporary armies of paid soldiers in wartime. The Militia, retained as an auxiliary unit of the New Model Army, is entrusted to support civic authorities in preserving domestic order. Responsibility for military commissions and promotions is assigned to the Council of Ten. However the appointment of the New Model Army's Captain-General of the Land Forces is made jointly by the Council of Ten and the Great Council. A committee of Great Council 'deputies in the field' (usually constituted of three councillors) accompany the Captain-General on campaign and can participate in taking major military decisions. The Air Service is the military aviation branch of the New Model Army. The funding of the Ducal Regiment of Brittany, is a joint-responsibility of the Brittany Company and the States of Brittany. In order to mitigate the effect of rising fiscal pressure, the BC and the States can raise funds necessary to finance wartime military expenditures by jointly issuing interest-yielding bonds. Technology Procurement Fund The Technology Procurement Act enacted on 1 September 2010 established the Technology Procurement Fund with the mission to stimulate foreign direct investment involving technology transfer and facilitate the acquisition of technology by Conti-based enterprises. The fund is endowed with an annual budget of €216 million. Its chief executive reports to the Councillor of State for Research and Technology. The Letter of Command is the document of reference for technology deals operated or facilitated by the Technology Procurement Fund. The letter addressed to the fund's chief executive is published annually in January by the Councillor of State for Research and Technology in compliance with the Technology Procurement Act. The document sets out stringent procurement objectives for the calendar year. The 2011 letter, the first of its kind, published on 15 January set a target of 500 technology units per month amounting to a total of 6000 technology units for the entirety of the year, an amount superior to the volume of technology acquired by Conti by the end of 2010.